| Back in June of 2005 I left my job on a medical disability. I was thus confronted with the question of what to do with my time every day. I quickly became bored sitting around and doing nothing productive. Not knowing how long I'd be out on disability I had to watch my budget very carefully. I couldn�t get started in a costly hobby and painting by numbers just doesn't do it for me. Ah, wait, I remembered that I had an empty 10 gallon aquarium with assorted equipment stored away somewhere. I dug out this dirty old aquarium and set it up not yet knowing what I would put in it. I wasn't very excited about this project but with limited funds to pursue anything else, I dove in. (pardon the pun) After it was all set up I started giving serious thought as to what kind of fish would make a good pet.. Many years ago I owned an Oscar Cichlid and enjoyed his disgruntled personality very much. He actually could recognize me and a few other people that often came to his front window to peep in at him. I knew better than to attempt to keep an Oscar, or any other large Cichlid in a 10 gallon tank but my thinking was to start out with a very young fish and move up to a larger aquarium as it matured. (what a dreadful mistake) I read up on all kinds of Cichlids here on the Internet and finally decided on purchasing a Jack Dempsey. I thought I would try a different Cichlid, one that I've never owned before. From all that I read about the Jack Dempsey I found that they are everything an Oscar is and maybe more. Now I was psyched. At the local pet shop they had only two juvenile JDs left. They were very young (about an inch and a half long at best.) and the clerk could not sex them for me. I wanted a male because they grow larger than the females and I wanted, a large fish with a large mouth, big eyes and attitude to spare.. The clerk gave me a good price if I purchased both of them ($5.00) so I did. I figured that I had a 50% chance of getting a male out of this purchase. They are a hardy fish from all I read but I attempted to offer them pristine conditions in this new 10 gallon world of theirs. I attached a custom made outside filter that was overkill for this aquarium (about 3.5 gallon capacity) but you can never have too much filtration in a Cichlid aquarium and Jack Dempsey�s are as Cichlid as you can get. These two little guys seemed very happy with all this space to themselves. Oh, I also purchased a Corry Cat at the same time and they all got along great, for a time, that is.. This �World of Jack Dempsey�s� was set up right at my desk and I was able to give them little feedings all day long and into the evening. I spend a lot of time at this desk on the computer and watching TV from there also. I spoiled them rotten with all kinds of tidbits. Every kind of premium food you can imagine, frozen and dry plus earth worms, ants and assorted bugs. I didn't over feed them but they received at least 6 to 8 small feedings or treats throughout the day. My question regarding whether or not I had a male was soon answered. One of the JD�s began to outgrow the other very rapidly. I wasn�t yet convinced that it was a male but within 8 weeks after purchasing them, they were both doing the hootchy-kootchie together all the time. You know, rubbing tails, locking lips, shimming and shaking in all the right places, yeah, it was very obvious that there was chemistry between these two kids. Chemistry is one thing but BABIES? After having these two youngsters for only 12 weeks, they had their fist clutch of eggs together. I never expected this would happen at such a young age and I was shocked and puzzled when I saw the wrigglers for the fist time at the bottom of the aquarium.. I became aware of the new hatchlings as I was watching the female. It looked as if she was eating something out of a shallow in the gravel but I noticed a puff of debris flowing out of her gills. Upon closer examination I could see that this was not debris but tiny wrigglers. She was trying to scoop up too many in her mouth to move them and was expelling some through her gills. I knew immediately what I was dealing with but to this day I can�t imagine why I never notice their parental activities during the three days prior to the eggs hatching. Having read up so much about the Jack Dempsey, I knew that it was approx three days for the eggs to hatch. I keep a daily fish log and to my shock I read that three days prior I had done a major cleaning of the tank and gravel and also moved the slate rocks around to form a new cave pattern. Were the eggs already laid? Did I move them unknowingly? I can�t remember the activity of the fish when I was doing this. It will always be a mystery to me. Well, time has passed and the little guys are now BIG guys. The baby fish are 14 weeks old at this writing and they are doing great. About 30 survived out of approximately 100 or so that were living after the first week and a move to a new residence out of state. I currently have the 30 babies in a 40 gallon custom tank with a passive overflow filter system. They are so large now and eating so much that they are now taxing this system to the max and I�m changing water and cleaning filters almost daily. But despite all the work, it�s very rewarding to see such healthy. happy and very active fish swimming as they do. Feeding time is always fun. These small but energetic little garbage disposals eat like starving Piranha. I often hold between my fingers the square blocks of frozen home made food just below the surface of the water. The way they attack this food is very exciting to watch. They�re biting my fingers as well as the food and although it doesn't hurt, it is sometimes very surprising how ferocious and strong these little guys are. I have to be careful that they don�t jump out of the aquarium in their enthusiasm to feed. It�s now time to thin them out and give them more space to hit that final growth mark that the aquarium shops want to see before taking them off my hands. Most are approaching 2 inches in length but many are only about 1 to 1 � inches and need to grow more. I�ll be putting half of them into another 20 gallon for another two weeks and POWER FEED them like I always have. The competition for food has now reached a point where the smaller JDs are getting a little beat up trying to get their share of the food. I�ll have none of that. As I write this, my two adults are fanning a new batch of eggs that were laid just 24 hours ago. (Oct.27, 2005) I�ll soon be watching them go through their parenting skills once again. I enjoyed watching the strong protective instincts of the adults when the babies were in the tank with them. They attacked the glass every time I, or anyone approached the aquarium. The Male would become very dark and his blue spots on his fins would brighten like light bulbs almost. Watching them nurture the young is something to behold, but I can�t go into all that at this time. If you�re reading this then you probably already know what I�m talking about. I find that observing nature at this level is very calming and rewarding for me and I know many people feel the same. I think I�ll finish this up now and sit and watch my two Jacks care for their eggs and I'll tease the big daddy just a little to break his boredom. He�s already very grumpy with me when I step over and peer into his world. The female is just too busy fanning and cleaning the eggs to care much about what I�m doing and that�s the way I like it in "THE WORLD OF JACK DEMPSEY�S |
| On 10/29/05 the baby fry hatched and I've established a log of their progress here on my website. GO to the "FRY LOG 2" and check their daily progress. |
| How I Joined "THE WORLD OF JACK DEMPSEYS" |
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